Try thinking about the type of knowledge/education you're wanting. Nursing and Medicine are completely different styles of education, mostly a different knowledge base as well. That's why I want to do medicine, not nursing. I have a strong interest in systems and the interactions of the human body and I have an interest in working with those. I'm am committed to patient care and I enjoy it, but I don't want to study for a degree in it. It's not a type of knowledge in which I'm interested in specialising.
That's one way to answer that question. There's plenty more. What you want to achieve, what your goals are, the kind of job you do. But it's a safe one this because they can respect it from an academic point of view. The prospect of spending 3 years studying a degree of which you have only a practical interest is not one that exictes you. The prospect of spending 5 years studying something which does is a far brighter one.
The answer's probably right there in your personal statement. I'm sure there's a line in there somewhere about how you're fascinated by the human body.

I have just finished my first clinical attachment and one thing which struck me was how much more time nurses spend caring for patients. Nursing, I have come to believe, is a profession for those who genuinely care about patients (of course, I am not suggesting that doctors care nothing about their patients!) and rest well at night, knowing that they've spent their day caring for others. Doctors, I noticed, although they interact with patients, they do so to a lesser degree - probably because they are far too busy to sit down and chat with patients. I also noticed that the more experienced a doctor you become, the lesser time you will have to spend with patients.

Nursing is very people-based. There are potential downsides to nursing, however: having to change diapers, cleaning up 'body fluids' (blood, etc), vomit, stools...

On the other hand, by being a doctor, you can combine caring and nursing with science. There is a more intellectual aspect to doctoring - think playing puzzles with a patient: you solve problems and keep patients happy at the same time. Additionally, medicine opens up tremendous opportunities for you - research, teaching, practicing in various parts of the world. The world can very easily become your oyster.

Being a doctor is also life-long: You may retire but you will never stop being a doctor. You can continue contributing to medicine for as long as you live and I think that is what makes medicine very different from nursing.

why isnt the world your oyster as much wif a nussing degree and Masters Nursing?
fact is, theres much more you can do wif your life as a nuss, gvien that you can land a job with less time commitment if you so choose to.
i would say that nursing lends you far more time to do what you want than medicine, if you choose to balance your life out with the other fings you want to do for a fuller lifestyle. Course some nurses choose to work fifty hours a week anyway them mentalists!

sorr didnt mean to sound crit - you made a good post really!

apart from the cleaning up body fluids downsides which are rare so arent real downsides at all, unless you cant stomach them at all but then you wouldnt do medicine then would you.

Would it be heretical to suggest that (for many people, at least) the most significant differences are prestige, status in the medical hierarchy, power and money

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More a taboo violation really. Not heretical.
The thing is, money's not the reason you're attracted to medicine. Well, it probably isn't. There are easier ways to earn money than that. Prestige, I don't think many people would care to deny that they would like to be a career where they enjoy respect and admiration for their hard work, and it's fair to say that nurses may not enjoy that place in the public spotlight quite as much as doctors.
But it's only when you're forced to answer the question, why not nursing, that you start to view the separation between doctors and nurses on a sliding scale such as that.
People are attracted to study medicine or they are attracted to study nursing. Many people are slightly deluded into thinking that medicine is all about helping people, and those people are usually weeded out of the running by interview. But the reasons that you are attracted to study medicine are probably completely different to the reasons that one would want to study nursing. For instance, I am attracted to studying medicine but I am interested in studying human physiology and learning about how to treat disease. I'm also attracted to the challenging intellectual specialties such as psychiatry or public health. I don't find patient care to be a stimulating topic of academic enquiry, not for me personally. Whilst I derive satisfaction from providing patient care and being a positive influence in a person's life, it's not something I would care to study in depth. If it were, I would have applied to study nursing. If I were to study nursing, it would be for academic reasons rather than any a desire to practice nursing.
This is perhaps an answer that I feel comfortable giving because I'm a graduate. I'm able to articulate my feelings because I have a clearer idea of what is academically challenging. It might not go down too well coming from a school leaver this one, and I'm not sure it would come off well even from me. But this is how I see it.
I think too many people try to answer this question by the sliding scale methodology. Medicine is more this or that. There's more prestige or power but that's not the reason at all. Those are judgments that you're making to try and get out of a corner you feel you've painted yourself into.
If you get asked this question it's probably for one of two or perhaps three reasons. One, you didn't make yourself clear enough when you gave your why medicine answer. Two, it's to test the strength of the original answer you gave. Three, it's to check that you have a realistic outlook on the profession you're interviewing for.

most applicants come from well skooled backgrounds, where this peer pressure is imminent. medicinde is pretigkiousd in these circles. omoghst the common peeple , the majorty, most peeple know that it istn prestigious, more the sign of a well skooled background.

thus these applicants, intent on finding some reason so they dont need to admit to the reality of being influenced by peer pressure, in their droves set off on sum kind of wierd quest to invent a reason for sudying medicine to cover up this motive.

Would you really say that peer pressure is the most important reason? I don't think it's necessary to resort to that. Medicine over nursing is a perfectly logical choice for the reasons I suggested (not least the fact that it pays significantly better), but of course admitting that would not be kosher. We are supposed to pretend that considerations like that just never enter our heads. People are then forced into making elaborate justifications for a decision that really should not be that hard for anyone to understand. Giella, I don't mean to suggest you are being disingenuous - just that the question encourages, and perhaps even expects, people to be.

PS: saying 'there are easier ways to get rich than being a doctor' does not mean that those applying to become doctors have not considered their financial position with a view to getting a good result for themselves.

ben, being led to beleive that you arent supposed to say 'for the money' is an issue ere. its actually a perfectly legit reason, if one says it in a way that meks sense. simply becos one asnt come across those reasons yet in their life doesnt mean others avent, and i'm an example, i used the money motive in my interview up front wiffout problems on more than one occasion. my interviewers understood exactly what i meant, probably becos they are adults like me.

for the majority of med skool applicants, who come from relatively weller off backgrounds peer pressure is the major 'onest answer.

peer pressure is an extremely weak answer, however honest it may be, but basing a career choice because other people made you do it. you've admitted you gave into peer pressure and made a life-changing decision because of it, how will they not grill you for that?
and you do realise if you really did it for the money, then medicine is probably the worst career, coz there are tons of careers where you earn soo much more and not have to work half as much

The answer to this question is easy with a good understanding of what being a dr involves, what being a nurse involves and what you want to do with your life, unfortunately the people that don't know will just read and reiterate some of the good answers people post on here to give the illusion that they've really given their career choice some thought